FIA GT SERIES: FRIDAY NOTEBOOK FROM ZOLDER
The action began at Zolder today for the second round of this year’s FIA GT Series. Two 80-minute Free Practice sessions gave the teams and drivers an opportunity to fine-tune their cars for the crucial qualifying session and qualifying race to be held at the Belgian track on Saturday. The 22-car field includes a rich variety of spectacular GT cars from Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Ford, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes and Nissan and they all got down to business under sunny skies in the morning session. Stephane Ortelli, sharing a Belgian Audi Club Team WRT entered Audi R8 LMS ultra with local star, Laurens Vanthoor topped the time sheets with a lap of 1m30.761s. For Ortelli it was an impressive time that beat the second placed McLaren MP4-12C of Sebastien Loeb Racing by half a second. In third place this morning was the HTP Gravity Charouz Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 piloted by German, Maximilian Buhk and Israeli, Alon Day, who are aiming to consolidate upon their fine podium result at Nogaro three weeks ago.
The afternoon session saw the quickest times set in the first twenty minutes before a rain shower dampened the circuit. Rene Rast stormed to P1 with a stunning 1m30.274s lap. The German, who was one of the stars of the first round in Nogaro, has moved in to the PRO Cup class in the #13 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS ultra that he shares with team mate Niki Mayr-Melnhof.
Taking second place this afternoon in the PRO Cup class was the BMW Team Brazil BMW Z4 shared by 1998 FIA GT1 World Champion, Ricardo Zonta, and Sergio Jimenez. The 100% all-Brazilian team are committed to the full season of FIA GT Series racing in 2013 and the Antonio Hermann managed squad were satisfied with their hard work ahead of qualifying tomorrow.
Taking third place in the PRO Cup class was the Lamborghini of Peter Kox and Slovakian team mate Stefan Rosina. The spectacular Lamborghini Blancpain Reiter run car was handling well around the Zolder track and a time of 1m32.319s was set by Kox, just before the rain swept the track.
In the PRO AM Cup category it was the Team India BMW Z4 that ran out quickest in FP1 with Julian Jousse setting a best time of 1m31.833s to consolidate their promising start to the season. Sadly for the team an accident in the second Free Practice session saw significant frontal damage inflicted on the car, after contact with the barriers, exiting the Jacky Ickx chicane when the rain started to fall. The team, who have engineering support from Vita4one Racing, will not take any further part in the meeting.
Securing the top PRO AM Cup position and setting a very impressive second fastest time overall in the afternoon session was the Grasser Racing Lamborghini. The Austrian team have been the surprise package so far in 2013, and after promising performances at Nogaro and also at last weekend’s Blancpain Endurance Series opener at Monza, the reigning FIA GT3 Champion, Dominik Baumann registered a fine lap of 1m31.209s. He shares the car with Hari Proczyk again this weekend.
In the Gentlemen Trophy class there was an excellent start for the #27 Seyffarth Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 of Duda Rosa and Paolo Bonificio. A late entry for Zolder, the Brazilian pair have formed a solid partnership from the start and topped both sessions, heading off the HTP Gravity Charouz Mercedes of Petr Charouz/Jan Stovicek and the Ford GT of Rodrive pairing of Felipe Tozzo and Raijan Mascarello.
The action continues tomorrow with Qualifying Practice at 09.10cet before the Qualifying Race gets underway at 14.15. Follow all the action with live streaming and timing right here – http://www.fiagtseries.com/pages/live
QUOTES
Rene Rast, #13 PRO Cup Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS Ultra
“Obviously this session was not too bad, as we are in front. We were a bit lucky because we put a good set of tyres on just before it started to rain, so I was able to do a good lap. In Free Practice 1 we already saw that we were quite strong, so we will see how it goes tomorrow in qualifying. For me this track is quite new as I only raced once, two years ago, and did 10 laps today but I am confident for the rest of the weekend.”
Peter Kox, #24 Lamborghini Blancpain Reiter Lamborghini LP560
“It was not worth risking too much for us when the rain came this afternoon. The forecast is good for the rest of the weekend so it made sense to be cautious and save the car. Prior to that it was all very constructive to us. We have done two races immediately before this which has been good for the team to bond back together after a long winter. We made some useful mechanical changes to the car before the rain came so all in all it was a constructive day for us.”
Duda Rosa, #27 Seyffarth Motorsport Mercedes SLS AMG GT3
“It is great to be here in the FIA GT Series. We are very fresh to everything here with a new car, new circuit and new team. However, the start could not have been better. Paolo (Bonifacio) and I are here to learn and we plan to contest the whole season. Our sessions were good today and I believe that if we respect our competitors and concentrate then we can have some very nice results for us in the Gentlemen Trophy class this weekend.”
